Baptism

Baptism is fundamental. It marks the start of Jesus’ ministry. The baptism of Jesus by John is recounted in the three synoptic gospels. The earliest of the accounts that has come down to us is that of Mark:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

“Jesus’ baptism by John is almost surely based on an historical event... Whether the individual details are historical, however, we cannot determine, but they are important for what Mark wants to tell us about Jesus. The Jewish people of Jesus’ time mourned the loss of prophets and the silence of God. Now, with Jesus’ appearance, the heavens are again opened up; God’s Spirit comes once more; and God’s silence is broken.” (Invitation to the Gospels, Paul Achtemeier)

Baptism is fundamental in the life of a Christian. That sounds straightforward. But I think that we are still in the process of renewing our understanding of this sacrament.

It has become customary to celebrate infant baptism in the course of the Sunday Eucharist. (Adults are baptized at the Easter Vigil.) It is not uncommon to hear comments about the infant that is being baptized being welcomed into the parish community, as well as being welcomed into the larger church. What I don’t often hear are words about Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Father.

However, by our baptism we enter into in a relationship with Father, Son and Spirit, with the Trinity. This is certainly the most important dimension of baptism. In baptism we are anointed with the Holy Spirit. We are “Christ-ened. God looks upon us and sees “his” own sons and daughters.

In celebrating the baptism of an infant, we are invited to proclaim the gospel message of Jesus in a powerful manner. We profess our faith in the good news that God loves us from the very beginning of our lives, that God loves us before we have the slightest ability to do anything on our own. We affirm what we read in the first letter of John: God is love and in this we know love that God has first loved us.

In the baptism of an infant we celebrate the awesome action of God proclaiming, as he did at the baptism of Jesus, this is my dearly loved child upon whom I pour out my own Spirit.

It seems customary now to applaud after the baptism as a sign of welcome. I confess this leaves me cold. It is a nice gesture that befits a birthday party or a luncheon speaker. The action of God calls for so much more. How I would love to hear a church resonate with a congregation’s praise of a God with full throated acclaim “You have put on Christ” or “Great is the Lord, Worthy of Praise, Spread the word of his Love.”

Collect for Tuesday in Christmas Time

O God, whose Only Begotten Son has appeared in our very flesh, grant, we pray, that we may be inwardly transformed through him whom we recognize as outwardly like ourselves.

The expression “Outwardly like our selves” is reminiscent of Docetism, an early heresy which maintained that Jesus simply appeared as a man, that his humanity was only an appearance, not a reality.